Podcast Central

Celebrating Our Professionals of the Year (VP)

Three years ago Cobb County School District began an annual recognition program for the Professional of the Year in which each school staff elected a staff member in a non-certified position for special recognition. We wanted to do something special for these three employees, elected over the last three years, to honor their service to our school. Therefore, we created this podcast to highlight their contributions to Mabry Middle School. You may watch the podcast in your browser by simply clicking on this link.

Dr. Tyson's Student Challenge for 2007 (VP)

At the beginning of each year Dr. Tyson meets with all of our Mabry students to review important school rules and routines as well as to challenge our students to do their very best work. In this video podcast, he talks with Mabry students about character, persistence, commitment, kindness, and other important aspirations. If you are new to Mabry, you will certainly want to listen carefully to his hope for your future.

Top Mabry Readers Take Home Nano and Shuffles

Georgia state law requires each middle school student reads 25 books each year. The majority of our Mabry students greatly exceed that goal. Hundreds read over 50 books, and many students even came close to 300 books read and documented in 1 year!

This podcast features the top reader in each grade level. Of these three students, the one (Katherine, 8th grade) with the highest number of books read and correctly documented on the Mabry reading logs received an iPod Nano. The second highest (Wade, 6th grade) received a 240 song Shuffle. And the third highest (Chelsea, 7th grade) received a 120 song Shuffle.

Listen to these students talk about their reading, their favorite books and authors, and how to pick interesting books.

Mission Possible I

On May 3rd, in Podcast Central, I published Mission Possible. Our objective was to award an iPod Nano to the student whose essay, designed to help students excel at Mabry next year, was the best. The contest was so close we just had to have three winners! An iPod Nano was awarded to Katie (pictured). Two students, Gretchen and Kyle, tied for second place just just one point less than Katie!

This podcast, by Katie, is the first in the series, Mission Possible, from our three winners. Students and parents both, listen carefully to Katie's excellent advice on how to achieve our school goal. If you follow her advice, I guarantee you will have even greater success at Mabry! We are making each of these mp3 podcasts so the students can actually download themselves into their new iPods!

Congratulations to all of the students who participated. Everyone submitted excellent entries!

Mission Possible IIa

On May 3rd, in Podcast Central, I published Mission Possible. Our objective was to award an iPod Nano to the student whose essay, designed to help students excel at Mabry next year, was the best. The contest was so close we just had to have three winners! An iPod Nano was awarded to Katie. Two students, Gretchen and Kyle (pictured), tied for second place, each with just one point less than Katie!

This podcast, by Kyle, is the third in the series, Mission Possible, from our three winners. Students and parents both, listen carefully to Kyle's description of our school programs and his excellent advice on how to achieve our school goal. If you follow his advice, I guarantee you will have even greater success at Mabry! We are making each of these mp3 podcasts so the students can actually download themselves into their new iPods!

Congratulations to all of the students who participated. Everyone submitted excellent entries!

Mission Possible IIb

On May 3rd, in Podcast Central, I published Mission Possible. Our objective was to award an iPod Nano to the student whose essay, designed to help students excel at Mabry next year, was the best. The contest was so close we just had to have three winners! An iPod Nano was awarded to Katie. Two students, Gretchen (pictured) and Kyle, tied for second place, each with just one point less than Katie!

This podcast, by Gretchen, is the second in the series, Mission Possible, from our three winners. Students and parents both, listen carefully to Gretchen's excellent advice on how to achieve our school goal while maintaining active involvement in sports. If you follow her advice, I guarantee you will have even greater success at Mabry! We are making each of these mp3 podcasts so the students can actually download themselves into their new iPods!

Congratulations to all of the students who participated. Everyone submitted excellent entries!

What's It Like to Move to a New School

Moving to a new school is really tough. Being a middle school student is tough. Put the two together? No way!

In this podcast we explore the stories of five of our new students in 7th and 8th grades. They moved from near and far. Most planned their move, but one 8th grade girl was forced to move unexpectedly because of the tragedy of Katrina. She and her family lost everything but found a wonderful school. This podcast contains the stories they told and the advice they give to students who move. They also share their thoughts on how students can welcome people to our school family.

What Is Podcasting?

Listen to find out! Just click on the icon above to listen to this podcast now on your computer. Since this is not an enhanced podcast, iTunes is not required. If you wish to download this podcast to your iPod so you can listen to it later when your computer is not close at hand, you will need iTunes. Start by reading the posts in the category, "About Podcasting." It's easy!

What Is Podcasting? (EP)

This is the same podcast as the one posted above. However, it's an enhanced podcast; notice the "EP" next to the purple antenna. Listening to an enhanced podcast on your computer requires using iTunes 4.9 and has an extra step or two not required when listening to a normal podcast. But it's much more cool! (For more information on the features of enhanced podcasts and how to use them, read the posts located under the category, "About Podcasting" in the gray sidebar on the right.)

To listen to this podcast on your computer, click on the icon above, which downloads the file instead of immediately playing it, like a regular podcast. Once the file has downloaded to your computer, drop it into the main iTunes window to play it. Now you can see the podcast as well as hear it!